Ronald Searle Wrap-Up

So, Ronald Searle had an interesting take on illustrating the work of Charles Dickens, but I think his artwork is a lot of fun. Not the definitive versions, but a welcome breath of fresh air.

I started taking a closer look at his work because Darrell Van Citters mentioned in his book "Mister Magoo's Christmas Carol, The Making of the First Animated Christmas Special" that Searle's illustrations from the 1961 edition of "A Christmas Carol" influenced some of the character designs in that special.

He specifically mentions the fiddler at Fezziwig's Christmas party:

You can definitely see that the fiddler from the special is a streamlined, UPA-ized version of the one from the book.

You can read more about this in this post from Darrell's blog:

Ronald Searle and Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol

He doesn't mention the "plunderers" but I think there are similarities there too. The cartoon version of Old Joe also has an eye patch and the characters in the book seem like they're doing a little dance number:

There's also a connection between Ronald Searle and another well-regarded version of "A Christmas Carol" (sort of):

Perhaps Searle's most famous work is his 1946-1952 British comic strip "St. Trinians's" which led to a series of movies. A couple of said movies featured Alastair Sim and George Cole, the respective old and young Scrooges of 1951's "Scrooge." 

Kind of fun!

Ronald Searle Illustrations for "Scrooge" (1970) - Part 2

The artwork by Ronald Searle that was featured in the opening credits of 1970's "Scrooge" is certainly striking.

But what did Searle himself think? Well, here's an interesting video on the making of the film featuring some comments by the artist:

And here's another video incorporating some of the above video, plus additional artwork and the credits themselves:

I find Ronald Searle's comments fascinating. It sounds like he didn't really like illustrating Dickens, although he did it quite a bit. Did he think he was not successful?

And he calls out John Leach and Arthur Rackham!

Hmmm...

Oh, and there was also a book version of the movie with additional Searle illustrations (see cover at top of page)!

Ronald Searle Illustrations for "Scrooge" (1970) - Part 1

We continue to stalk the work of British artist Ronald Searle with his illustrations for the main titles of 1970's "Scrooge" starring Albert Finney.

I remember thinking the credits were very striking when I first saw this movie so many years ago.

The advent of home video and the the internet have given us the option to take a closer look.

There are several illustrations used, some of which had multiple credits. For example, Edith Evans and Kenneth More shared the same one.

Here's each illustration:

Then the last one fades into live action:

Great work!

"A Christmas Carol" - World Publishing Company (1961)

"A Christmas Carol" (1961)
World Publishing Company
Illustrator: Ronald Searle

We meet up again with Ronald Searle with this 1961 edition of "A Christmas Carol" with additional illustrations not included in the LIFE Magazine story that we had just seen.

Those wonderful two-page spreads are included with some black and white illustrations to flesh out the book.

Here's a look at some of them, starting with this nice frontispiece:

And here are some of the black and white:

There's also this two-page spread which was not used in LIFE, but is just as good:

The LIFE article doesn't say anything about the book coming out and makes it sound as if LIFE commissioned the paintings they used. 

Whatever the case, there's a lot of fun artwork here!

LIFE Magazine (December 19, 1960)

"A Christmas Carol"

LIFE Magazine (December 19, 1960)

Illustrator: Ronald Searle

We were last hanging around 1960 with the World Record Club's recording of "A Christmas Carol," so we'll stay a little longer to check out the December 19 issue of LIFE Magazine.

This issue features an awesome 12-page (six two-page spreads) adaptation of "Christmas Carol" with illustrations by British artist Ronald Searle!

Take a look:

Oh, and Mrs. Kennedy was on the cover - still probably not the adaptor of the World Record Club version!